Times have really, really changed, as we can tell every time we turn on the television, drive past the vacant Spag's building on Route 9, or hand over a $5 bill for an ice cream cone — make mine frozen pudding.

Nowhere have times changed more than in baseball, as was discussed during the "Baseball in the Blackstone Valley" seminar on Thursday night at the Asa Waters Mansion in Millbury.

There were two honored guests on hand from the old Blackstone Valley League — former Red Sox pitcher Lou Lucier and high school Hall of Fame coach John Doldoorian. At 95, Lucier, who went to Grafton High but lives in Webster these days, is the oldest living ex-Red Sox player.

In 1943, Lucier made nine starts for the Red Sox and had three complete games, earning — a best guess — between $3,500 and $4,000 for his work that year. Saturday's starting pitcher for Boston, John Lackey, has made 83 starts for the Sox without ever pitching a complete game.

Lackey's paychecks for those 83 starts have totaled about $65 million.

The name "Blackstone Valley League" has retained its magic for decades, even though the league itself had a short shelf life. It operated during the second half of the Roaring Twenties, then again for a few seasons after World War II.

But, oh, the family tree.

Lefty Grove pitched a game for Douglas in the first BVL. Imagine walking down to your high school field and seeing Pedro Martinez on the mound striking out a guy you go to lunch with every workday.

That's what it was like.

Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg played for Douglas, too. Millbury had George Army, who never made the major leagues but whose grandson, Tim Army, is an assistant coach with the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

The grandfather of Dave Mellor, head groundskeeper at Fenway Park, managed the Douglas BVL team.

The second edition of the BVL, which played until 1950, was like today's Cape Cod League, only better. Lucier pitched in that BVL years after playing the majors. On his way to becoming Red Sox manager, Joe Morgan played for Hopedale.

Dick Hall, 6-2 with seven saves for the world champion 1966 Orioles, pitched in the BVL. Walt Dropo played in the Blackstone Valley League, then won the American League Rookie of the Year award with the Red Sox in 1950.

Dave Sisler studied at Princeton for most of the year, then spent his summers pitching in the Blackstone Valley League. Sisler won 24 games for Boston from 1956-59. Mike Roarke, Red Sox pitching coach in 1994, caught in the BVL.

Like today's Cape Cod League, the college players could not accept money, but had jobs — sort of. Doldoorian, a college kid then, was asked on Thursday what the work schedule was like and when the players got to go home.

"Well, whenever we wanted to, I guess," he replied.

Having grown up in Whitinsville, which had teams in both editions of the BVL, I heard all the legends and stories, and my favorite is this one, related by the late Irving Dalton, business manager of the Whitin Machine Works teams.

In 1925, Whitinsville and Douglas played on July 4. It was the biggest game of the season, and Walter Schuster, who ran the Douglas team and was the guy who employed Grove, was expected to bring in some ringers. So Dalton figured he'd do the same and drove up to Worcester, where the manager of the city's team in the Eastern League was Casey Stengel.

Dalton told Stengel that if he'd send his best pitcher to Whitinsville for the July 4 game, he'd give both Stengel and the pitcher $100 under the table. Stengel agreed. Come July 4, the bootleg pitcher gave up seven runs in the first inning, and Douglas went on to slaughter Whitinsville.

Dalton went to Worcester the next day and confronted Stengel, who told him: "Right after you left the other day, the guy from Douglas came up and asked me if he could borrow my best pitcher for that game. I told him I had just made a deal with Whitinsville. So, the Douglas guy said, 'I'll give you $200 if you send your worst pitcher down there instead.'

"How could I turn down an offer like that?"

The Blackstone Valley League may be extinct, but its legacy never will be.

Another commercial?

Raise your hand if you're worried you'll throw a shoe at the TV screen when that Southwest Airlines ballerina commercial plays for the 12th time in an hour on a Red Sox telecast. … There are some really bad beards in baseball these days, aren't there? … As Mike Napoli chases Mark Bellhorn for the Red Sox' single-season strikeout record, the similarities in the two players are remarkable — knowing the strike zone, swinging at pretty good pitches, but just not hitting them. … The commissioner's office is reviewing, and changing, official scorer's decisions all the time these days, and it is leading to some interesting dilemmas for teams. On Friday night, a Yankees official tried to make a case to have an error taken away from shortstop Eduardo Nunez. Of course, that would have meant Andy Pettitte got charged for earned runs he did not originally have. So, on second thought, the appeal was withdrawn. … The Pawtucket Red Sox took a six-game winning streak into last night and have games today, Monday and Tuesday at McCoy Stadium before leaving on a brief road trip. In the PawSox' 7-6 victory over Louisville on Friday, there were two pitchers named Villareal on the mound in the eighth. Pawtucket had Brayan and Louisville had Pedro.

Baseball Jeopardy

This week's installment recognizes the 40th anniversary of the addition of the designated hitter to American League batting orders, with the answers and questions provided by reader Ron Marshall.

The answers:

1. The first Red Sox DH to hit a walk-off HR.

2. The first Red Sox DH to hit a triple and homer in the same game.

3. The first Red Sox DH to appear in a postseason game.

4. The four Red Sox players to be awarded the Outstanding Designated Hitter of the Year award.

5. The first Red Sox pitcher to bat in a regular-season game during the DH era.

Questions below.

Catching up with...

Todd Walker, who had a great postseason in 2003, is the baseball coach at Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport, La.; short-time infielder Nate Spears is playing for the Indians' Triple-A affiliate in Columbus.

Lefty reliever Dennys Reyes, one of the roundest players in recent Sox history, is pitching for the Mexico City Reds of the Mexican League.

Ex-Sox third baseman Luis Ortiz is a minor league coach in the Cleveland farm system; former coach Nelson Norman is the director of the Orioles Dominican Academy; switch-hitting utility infielder Bryant Nelson is in his fourth season with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League; Rick Miller, a great pinch hitter and defensive center fielder, just finished his second season as coach of New Bedford of the New England Collegiate League.

Old-time Baseball Game

The 20th annual Old-time Baseball Game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Peter's Field in North Cambridge.

During the pregame ceremonies, Junior Medina will receive the Greg Montalbano Award, which honors the memory of the Westboro native and former Red Sox minor leaguer, who died of cancer in 2009.

The game features players wearing uniforms from baseball's past, remembering teams like the St. Louis Browns and Boston Braves.

Admission is free and proceeds from the event benefit the Scleroderma Foundation.

Jeopardy questions

1. Who is Orlando Cepeda? He homered off the Yankees' Sparky Lyle in the bottom of the ninth at Fenway Park in the third game of the 1973 season on April 8. It was his first homer in a Red Sox uniform.

2. Who is Reggie Smith? He subbed for Cepeda at DH on Sept. 2, 1973, in Milwaukee and tripled and homered to help the Red Sox defeat the Brewers, 10-4.

3. Who is Juan Beniquez? He batted leadoff as the DH for the Red Sox in all three games of the 1975 ALCS versus the Oakland A's.

5. Who is Luis Tiant? On July 12, 1975, Tiant entered the lineup in the eighth inning when Red Sox DH Cecil Cooper moved to first base. Tiant flied out to right in the bottom of the inning. Three months later, he got two hits in the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

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